Happy New Year

A vision in white

Today is White Wednesday over at Faded Charm.

This is my white snow princess. The most adorable princess in white I know.

Here she is again - all aglow with the all white tree.

And here she is with her big brother. What a hug he gave that pretty, dressed in white princess after her pre-k Christmas program. 

I love you both very much. Thanks for always making me smile.

Weirdo Kid

Well my freshman in high school had a history project to dress up as someone or something that was at least 40 or more years ago and could not be American.

What does my weirdo son do? He becomes a NUKE. Sometimes I wonder about him but then again he makes me laugh. 

Daddy's gone

We have a chalkboard that is in the hall near the mudroom. I leave messages or the kids do or draw pictures. This past couple of days my first grader- Jack has left little notes that say how many days till daddy leaves. Then he draws a sad face. Today at 5am I had to wake my kids to drive hubby-their daddy to the base so he could leave for Afghanistan. They were tired and sad for him to leave. It is hard no matter when they leave but even harder near Christmas. He will miss so much this deployment. Christmas, a pre-k program, all the birthdays, valentines day, Easter, pre-k graduation, a first dance recital, all my son's first year of playing basket ball, and pretty much the whole summer break.

Sometime after school today my first grader wrote this:

It ripped my heart out and it will kill my hubby when he gets to where he is going and sees it.

I hope my kids weather well through this. I know they are strong but kids shouldn't have to be this strong. It isn't fair to them.

Here they all are at 5 saying goodbye to daddy.

Daddy and Sophie

Daddy and Jack.

Daddy and Jon.

Be safe Kirk and hurry home. We love and miss you.

Christmas homemade gifts

. This week is homemade gifts and I have worked on a few this past week. I made a burlap banner that says Jingle Bells and has bells tied to the tip of each letter. It was extremely easy and fun. I love working with burlap - in fact I am almost out. Dang.

It ended up quite large so the kiddos had to hold it up for the photo.

Here is a closer shot of the Jingle part.



And here is my lovely crafting partner holding up the bells section. Notice the cute bells on the ends?  Though I think her belly sticking out of her shirt is much cuter :)

 
As I have said - I love burlap. So, I made a cute stocking while I was at it. I had so much fun with this that I think we are all getting new stockings this year. I added muslin as the cuff and then put some fun fringe on it. Topped it all off with a burlap flower.

And would it be a holiday without a tassel? I think not. So sticking with my natural elements color theme I did a brown and cream one with a "let it snow" motif. I painted the lovely snowflake with rustoleums Heirloom white - I mean seriously what else would I use? And then used lovely mod podge and some martha glitter. Love it. Gotta quit making all this cute stuff to give away :)

Lastly, my mom's house is not decorated yet. And to a whirlwind- thinks everyone should be decorated by now and done to the nines kinda gal it made me sad. So the kids and I made her a wreath today. We had dinner with them tonight and felt it would be a great thing to give her then. We had fun doing it but man does it take a lot more ornaments than I thought - and if you wait this late the dollar tree no longer has the green and red- only silver and gold. So, gold got added to the mix. My daughter would love a pink one with silver..maybe after Christmas. 

And had to end with a shot of my wreath making helpers. Aren't they cute? And no I did not pick out her outfit she did it all alone. Somehow she thinks that the blue polka dots on the shirt tie into the blue of the dress. Don't ask?

We spent the morning helping festive up my sisters house. Fun there. Will take photos when it is all done. Enjoy the week and stay warm all.

Finally - the Kitchen Reveal

Well it seems like it has been forever since we started this renovation. And to think we were just going to paint cabinets, get new appliances and counter tops. Then because we had to cut a wider doorway so the fridge door would swing open it turned into a gut job. But I am glad we gutted and started over as it turned out just perfect.

First lets remember how awfully ugly it was to begin with. It had white cabinets to start with but against that glaring red wall it hurt. So, I tried by painting the cabinets a light green. It worked for about 2 weeks then I hated it. Remember it had those terrible flooring as counter tops- kinda reminded me of a bowling alley. It had all the storage on one side of the kitchen with so much counter space that never got utilized. 

Then on the opposite wall it had all the cooking triangle. Yes stove then 9 inches of counter-top, sink then 24 inches with dishwasher underneath then the fridge. It was hard to work with it all on that one wall. 

Would you like a tour? Well come on in. Here is a shot from the newly widened doorway. We got new cabinets from Diamond - plain classic white. We did white bead board planks vertically up the walls and then did butcher block counter tops from IKEA. I sanded the floors then painted a distressed black checkerboard. It is a bit more distressed than wanted as moving in cabinets and appliances seems to have hurt it a bit - but I can touch that up later on. We installed a new island that is black and it hides the microwave down low so the kids can reach it. We also put a huge blackboard on the back wall. Nice for reminders. The appliances are all stainless steel. My faves - nice double door fridge, nice quiet dishwasher, wonderful Kenmore pro dual fuel stove ( love it ) and a wonderful farm sink from IKEA. It is truly a kitchen that is reflective of our old house. We wanted more light as our only window looks onto a screen porch (not much natural light) but cans just didn't seem to go with the look or age of the home. So, I found old school house pendant lights on eBay and got 3. Two are used in the kitchen over the island and the third is in the adjoining mud room. We also have two school house flush mounts (old from eBay) in a corner and over the sink.
Now enjoy the rest of the photos. 

We went with shelves on the sink side as I didn't want it claustrophobic with tons of cabinets and I love them. It makes putting up dishes so much easier and neater. I also painted the crown and window molding black for a pop of that color around the room. I plan on putting a skirt on the bottom of the sink to soften up the room a bit but that is a much later project :)


Now we will take some closer looks. Here is a tree I decorated for the island. Very primitive, plain and just candy canes. That is the kitchen theme this year. It usually is gingerbread men - but hey a girl needs some change once and a while.

Here is a view of my lovely open shelving. I just adore it.

Here is a close up of the left side of the sink. This the side for the plates and bowls and such. 

Okay had to throw in a couple gingerbread men. The kids love them.

I love using all the silver in the kitchen. And it is great fun to find it all at thrift shops and auctions. 

Here is the right side of the sink. It holds all the glasses. Don't worry there are plastic ones for the small kiddos they just go under the island - can't have those ugly things messing up the shelves. :)

Now we are on the stove side of the kitchen. It turned out great. 

Notice the feet my hubby cut out for all the cabinets? It is the same form as the brackets under the shelves. 

View of the stove side. I insisted on the appliance garage because I - hate - seeing appliances on my counter tops. Especially the coffee pot. It is a God- send.

And here is my pot rack. I was considering hanging one over the island but didn't want it to block the view or hit my taller kids in the head. So, I had bought this piece at an auction and thought about using it in the master bath but then it screamed to be here. I love the pots hanging there and then a shelf for display above. Okay I hate my pots - except my one nice Martha Stewart one but we are working on finding new ones. 

That is it for the kitchen tour. We still need to plank the ceiling and some small stuff but wanted to share it with you in all its festive glory.

Thanks to my hubby for doing all the work and changing it when I changed my mind.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Well we broke out the kid's tree. They just couldn't wait any longer. It is done in a sparse way as of yet. They as all kids do; put all the ornaments on the lower part and all in one section. So, I need to readjust it a bit and then add in some pops of color. I didn't wind the cranberry beads this year - just wasn't up to it this time. So, we'll insert some picks of red color to see what happens.

Next will be getting all the thanksgiving/fall items put away and then getting the Christmas stuff out. Ahh fun. But not till tomorrow as I am so tired from Black Friday shopping. But I accomplished a lot on my list. Time to rest.